What can't Chappell Roan do?
On Thursday, the Midwestern Princess herself released her long awaited new single “The Giver” for fans. Roan first teased the song during her Saturday Night Live debut last fall, but it wasn't until today that fans were able to stream the song on demand — and trust us, you'll be streaming this one over and over again. The singer's latest comes after she experienced a whirlwind year with history-making festival sets, multiple inescapable summer hits, and of course her recent Grammy win for Best New Artist.
While “The Giver” embraces that traditional twang that so many country songs have (the first 30 seconds you can't help but think of old-school Shania Twain) the track's lyrics are anything but run of the mill. Roan recently shared that she thought it would be "funny" to release a "lesbian country song" bringing together her Midwestern upbringing and her openly queer identity.
“I’m trying to really articulate that it’s not me trying to cross genres and be like, ‘Hey, you know, look at me.’ I’m not trying to convince a country crowd that they should listen to my music by baiting them with a country song,” Roan said in a recent interview with Amazon Music. “That’s not what I feel like I’m doing. I just think a lesbian country song is really funny, so I wrote that.”
She continued, “I wrote a country song not to invade country music, but to really capture what I think, the essence of country music is, for me, which is nostalgia, and fun in the summertime, and the fiddle, and the banjo feeling like country queen. It makes me feel a certain type of freedom that pop music doesn’t let me feel. I think it’s interesting and I had to do it. I had to do it for myself to know what is it actually like to write a country song and perform it next to ‘Casual’ or next to ‘My Kink Is Karma’ or next to ‘Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl’ — I just had to do myself justice.”
Roan also shared more on the inspiration behind the new song on Instagram, where over recent weeks she's teased the single's release with curated photos of her dressed for different "jobs", nodding to the song's lyrics.
“Dan Nigro and I wrote this together and it was so fun!!! We’ve never done a country song and I have such a special place in my heart for country music. I grew up listening to it every morning and afternoon on my school bus and had it swirling around me at bon fires, grocery stores and karaoke bars,” she wrote. “Many people have asked if this means I’m making a country album??? My answer is.. hmm right now I’m just making songs that make me feel happy and fun and The Giver is my take on cuntry xoxo may the classic country divas lead their genre, I am just here to twirl and do a little gay yodel for yall *✲☆⋆”
You can stream “The Giver” now, below.
